 well thank you so much so that do you guys know where yeah you know where that is there's parking usually back there you have my cell phone number but i will plan on seeing you you know around 11 11 15 okay thank you so much do you guys need like a do you want to keep this in case you want to do like a photo shot of that okay Jessica early thanks so much for for it being interviewed by us thank you thank you for having me here and and who is who else is here with us remotely so we have Mary Garrish who is one of our rights and democracy board members and she has been an advocate for a healthcare system that serves us all and healthcare as a human right for many years in this state she is down in Bennington Vermont and she is a veteran actually of Mary is it two or three at least two delegations of rad rights and democracy members that we sent down to washington dc to stay direct actions against the various republican bills it's three three times Mary has gone down to dc to fight for healthcare as a human right and healthcare for all so Mary welcome do you want to introduce yourself sure and i'm here in Bennington and i'm very proud to be a board member of rights and democracy and i'm also very excited that right democracy is continuing to work on act 48 with which i've been involved for many years uh first through the health care of the human right campaign of the Vermont workers center and now of course through rad well jessica you're working nurse and nurse practitioner and you're also the health care uh activist and advocate for for rights and democracy so specifically what are you doing what is the drive right now so um i am i'm a working nurse and nurse practitioner i um am rights and democracies health care justice organizer and for the past several months um we've been really organizing around um the principle the founding print the foundational principle i think that we're all driving for is to win here in vermont and eventually across the country um healthcare as a human right and public good delivered to every person every human being regardless of ability to pay via a publicly and equitably financed system and um healthcare being a fundamental right as a principle most other countries whether industrialized or or not um actually enshrine and uphold and accept and the us is very very um behind on that front i think mary would probably agree she's a human rights lawyer and has done a lot of work in that arena um and so here in vermont we believe that we have a law in the books that enshrines that principle and it's the only way achieving that is really the only way that we're going to ensure that the patients i see every week mostly patients who are um uh dependent on medicaid and medicare mostly older folks um get the high quality healthcare that they need um because i encounter a lot of people in my work and in my conversations as an organizer with rights and democracy we have to make choices every day between things like medication and groceries going to the doctor and you know having a ride or transportation to work and these are choices that in a uh healthy thriving egalitarian society no one should have to make um and so we at rights and democracy are sort of fighting on two levels we're resisting very very vigorously the national republican agenda to dismantle healthcare to fundamentally restructure medicaid as we know it to the great detriment of poor and working people in this country and also let's remember that medicaid is not just a program for the poor it's a program for all of us it's the biggest pair of long-term care which most of us either ourselves or one of our loved ones will eventually need a long-term care or nursing home care for um older folks that need a higher level of care and can't be taken care of in their home in their older age um medicaid pays for that medicaid pays for almost half of all births in this country um it pays for a tremendous amount of women's health so these are fundamentally um crucial programs for huge swaths of the population and uh they're under attack by the republican administration which also wants to roll back um many of the gains made under the affordable care act which we all know wasn't perfect but also at the same time made many improvements to a sort of cowboy capitalist healthcare system in which pre-existing conditions barred people from getting the care they need prior to the protections enshrined in the aca so at the national level with an eye toward what has been happening um coming out of congress we at rights and democracy are organizing people to resist cuts to medicaid any attempts to voucherized medicare and roll back and or repeal of or destabilization of the aca because that would have tremendous fallout for vermonters and millions of people across this country um and at the same time because of the very cuts that are being proposed nationally we feel that here in vermont to protect vermoners from these grave threats we really need to move ahead with universally universal healthcare that is equitably and publicly financed as um laid out in act 48 and we have or uh members organizing across the state to get there there are different paths there's something called universal primary care um that would provide primary care mental health and addiction treatment services free of charge to all vermoners that's a bill in the state house that may be one step in in the right direction to get a stack 48 um but regardless of what legislative path we ultimately take we know that at the end of the day vermonters have a big appetite and are ready for a healthcare system that serves us all um and i think mary can speak more specifically to act 48 if you have further questions yes we definitely do and what exactly is the is the act what are the main things in act 48 mary that would would bring you this direct universal healthcare to vermonters at 48 which is currently the law that everyone who lives in the state of vermont people equate help that sounds great mary but how how how does that work is it because all of us will be then paying into it is that why that's correct yeah it will be that needed anymore to process more people in the house and and mary thank you so much for that and i would also just add that i think it's you know mary makes a good point that people get really scared and nervous for understandable reasons when we talk about progressive taxation or any kind of taxes right it's such a taboo word the idea that we would pay higher taxes for anything but i think we also have to remember that um you know i think why we're so fearful of taxation in this country is because unfortunately our government at the state and federal level has been so leached and sapped and and drained of resources over many decade decades under a very um you know uh a very planned out agenda of the conservative and and right wing in this country to um you know sort of undermine the role of government um Americans aren't used to getting much from their taxes right because it's sort of like this vicious cycle where we don't fund and provide enough revenue to our government agencies and then as a result they aren't able to provide as much as they otherwise would be able to if they were adequately adequately funded and the net result is people feel like the government doesn't do anything for them so it's completely understandable that a lot of folks don't feel like they are they just see money going out of their paycheck every week and not getting anything in return and i think we at rights in democracy believe that we really have to start reframing things around what are our priorities as communities and what does it mean to invest because in other countries that have national health care systems they generally have much higher tax rates but they get so much in return as mary mentioned right they don't have to worry about paying astronomical premiums and and having huge deductibles that make it virtually impossible to go to the doctors basically um but you know and and and they have um better infrastructure they have free um virtually free relative to us higher education they get all these things for what is taken out from their taxes and so i think we need to remember that um seeing our taxes go up it it's not like that money's going out into the ether if we had act 48 it would be an investment in all of our collective health and well-being and we'd see something tremendous in return and we'd be able to much more robustly tackle things like the opiate epidemic and the the crisis of substance abuse in this state which is ravaging many communities we'd be able to um you know invest in mental health which is woefully overstretched and inadequate currently in vermont um and so i think we need to fundamentally sort of change and shift how we think about taxation and recognize that that's actually how we invest in our communities and improve the quality of life improve people's quality of life especially the quality of life of of poor and working in middle class families in this state um and so i don't know about you but i in my conversations with many of my patients with people throughout the state people are ready to chip in a little bit more if it means that they um you know are able to access going to the doctor if it means that you know their neighbor who is a diabetic is actually able to pay for their insulin and doesn't have to wait until you know they're in the emergency room having their because they're they have a massive diabetic foot infection and now we need astronomically expensive hospital level care to get their toes amputated that to me is not the types of communities we want to live in we want to live in communities that invest in keeping us healthy and keeping us out of the hospital in keeping us um you know uh working and well and thriving um and so i think mary would agree that that um we're all willing to pay a little bit more to create the type of robust government services that that um you know build strong vibrant healthy communities for us now and in the future and i think that applies to the range of issues that rights and democracy is fighting for whether it be health care or things that we need to address you know just as imminently like the climate climate crisis so mary anything to add to that no that was that was great i agree with everything you said and i just want to emphasize that the point that you made because and and for me of course health care isn't all about cost it's about outcomes and about human dignity and human suffering however i do know that everyone that is opposed to universal care talks about cost and you made a very key point jessica because the reason our costs are so high is because people can't get the medical care they need until they wind up having to be admitted to intensive care website and then the cost our skyrocket if that diabetic has gotten the treatment they needed to begin with and they don't need now to begin the icu they don't need the amputation the costs go down dramatically and this is what other countries and even in terms of as you said the tax uh and benefit analysis is really important i i just want to a very short story when i was in jeniva advocating at the u.m. for the united states requiring universal health care i noticed that our hotel as most of the hotels there are half hotel and half what they call pumpkin airs which are housing for people who are older and don't have housing and need medical care they have for example a medical practitioner on each floor a doctor that will come in and see them and it's all already paid for by taxes so that they have the care they need they have the long term care they have the independent but they still have somewhere to live so this impact housing education all the things that jessica mentioned and those are all tied in with our health care because it's not it's all like a wheel is focusing and our our health care is one aspect of our human rights and our human dignity that is impacted and interrelated to all of our other human rights and that's what rad is writing for and the sooner that we get on board with people realizing how important it is to care for each other through a single universal health care for all system the sooner people are going to realize the other advantages of that sort of taxation and and to get us there because i always i'm an organizer and so i want to talk about a little bit how we can get there how can we get full implementation of act 48 rights and democracy feels that it's really important you know we're called rights and democracy we believe in winning the recognition and the full you know vigorous implementation of all our rights our rights to health care our rights to clean water clean environment an equitable economy that works for us all we want to win those rights and see every person in vermont um you know having them in a very full way and the way we get there is by bringing people every day vermonters back into our democracy which we know at the national level and even here in vermont to some extent has been hijacked by corporate well-moneyed private interests that um through you know no essentially no campaign finance laws that are really strong in this country have allowed have been uh have sort of taken over our political system and have undue influence and so we want to return democracy into the hands of of vermonters of people and so we believe that to win any of these fights for act 48 for universal primary care for for a health care system that works for us all we need people in the state house to be standing with us and the only way we can do that is mobilize thousands of vermonters to stand up and say to their elected leaders hey these are our priorities these are our concerns these are what this is what we're seeing in our communities and you know you represent us and you need to fight for us and so um we have this wonderful i am a health care justice voter sign-on card which people are basically signing up saying that they believe that health care is a human right they believe in the full implement that act 48 which is current law should be fully implemented and things like universal primary care should be passed they believe that our governor and other elected officials should stand up which which governor sought to his credit has recently done but needs to continue to do and needs to work with us to he's he stood up against the trump and g.o.p in congress uh congressional g.o.p's health care bills uh to his credit scott has done that and we need him to continue to stand with us as we move ahead towards things like act 48 um and the way we show our elected officials because the one thing we know politicians respond to is votes and uh at rights and democracy we are going to only support candidates that are standing up very strongly for health care that is publicly and equitably financed and serves us all um and if they're not going to stand up for that then we are going to train candidates and run candidates who will um and so if you're interested in this work please go to rights and democracy um radvt.org sign up to be a health care justice for a voter um you can share your story with us if you have a health care story we'd love to hear from you we'd love to talk to you but um you know especially with the new legislative session starting with the elections in 2018 um you know if for monitors really want to see things change they need to get involved they need to you know claim their seat as as voters as as um people that have a voice in the democratic process and we want to help them do so um and and really take back the state house which is our house and which should be a place where we're moving forward with legislation that really helps us all um win things like universal health care win things like um more equitable economy through things like raising the minimum wage um and you know other really important initiatives to working and middle class families in this state we do and if we retake our democracy in this state um anything is politically possible i don't think rights and democracy believes that there are things that are quote unquote politically impossible that's a vicious cycle you know you always hear um oh we can't do that we can't we can't move that far we can't be that bold um for monitors across the board who we talked to you are ready for bold action and to be honest a lot of my patients for whom health care is a life and death issue can't really afford for us to go with half measures or you know wait and feel out what's going to happen from the federal level it is time for our legislators it's time for our governor to take bold action um to build again safe equitable healthy thriving communities here in the state obviously we're talking about um having our government be accountable to our interests and um when we were reading through act 48 preparing for this interview uh accountable was a word stood out to us uh it's used repeatedly accountable health care and we wanted to ask you what isn't accountable about our health care currently and um what changes we would like to say i think it does yeah that does help jessica what can you talk to us person to person and tell us what we can do now in this time frame yes so that is the most important question and again um i would say a first step is to check out rights and democracy and our work and sign up to be a health care justice voter um because it's really important that we get tremendous uh numbers of people sort of standing up and demonstrating that they believe in health care as a human right they believe vermont should move ahead with building a health care system that delivers health care as a right and as a public good um equitably to us all um and so at radvt.org you can sign up to be a health care justice voter we also need people to share their stories we're finding that the most moving and compelling thing by far i could rattle off a lot of statistics about the costs of our current broken health care system and um you know negative health outcomes and uh ways other countries in europe and and and also canada and um even even some you know developing nations that have universal health care are seeing better health outcomes and cost controls that can be a little abstract to people for understandable reasons what not what is not abstract and what feels very real to people is you know their personal experiences with our health care system not being able to get the care they need having loved ones that you know have forgotten needed medical care because they couldn't afford it or they were scared that um you know they were going to get hit by bills or they hadn't reached their deductible yet so they didn't want to go to the primary care doctor to get something checked out and then it turned into a much more serious illness that landed them in the hospital um and and you know those kind of stories really resonate with people it's the stories i encounter on a weekly basis as a nurse and it's the stories i encounter as i you know do organizing work just talking to folks in burlington and throughout the state um and and we really need to hear those stories our elected officials need to hear those stories because we need to really make people aware and educate folks um that you know the way things are currently is is no longer acceptable it hasn't been acceptable for many years um and it's finally time for us to move on and create something better and um ensure that you know our health care system is uh driven by the needs and the the uh goal of of achieving the best quality of life for people versus um you know the bottom line of for-profit pharmaceutical industry the the for-profit pharmaceutical industry private insurance medical device manufacturers you know that's not as a nurse that is not what health is about health is about giving people the medical care they need when how and where they need it and not worrying about whether you know an insurance company is going to see their profit margins rise um and so you know sign up to be a health care justice voter share your story you can also do that at rights and democracy talk to your neighbors talk to your elected officials if you have a health care story call up your state senator call up your your house rep share these stories with them um and you know that's what we need en masse collectively starting to talk about uh publicly write a letter to the editor you know um in your in your local paper in in in on a blog whatever it need whatever you can do to start um you know raising awareness uh getting active connecting in your community around the issues that you care about and I would encourage you to do that whether it's health care whether it's environmental justice racial gender whatever justice causes that you feel strongly about um you know things only change to the extent that we stand up shout loudly and change them ourselves I just want to emphasize about the stories just in case so right I know when we were first trying to get at 48 paths all day long you know everybody is something that we can't ignore that human suffering thank you Mary thank you very much well thank you thank you for taking the time for us to share this um this important message with you of course thanks so much thank you thank you Jessica thank you Mary thank you Mary for